LOCI Eames' Day Part One
by AMDonahue
Summary: Eames' deals with her relationship with her sister, nephew, partner, career and personal life in this twopart episode. please excuse the bugs on the first posting. Give a read.


**Law and Order Criminal Intent**

**Eames' Day Part One**

**AnneMarie Donahue**

Det. Eames lifted her nephew up into her arms, still cradling his head, even though he clearly no longer needed this protection. In the background her sister watched with what could pass for envy, but was really bittersweet gratitude. She smiled as she watched her little sister play her nephew. The living room was bright and airy; both sisters had the same sense of style, clean, neat but inviting and warm.

"He's getting so big." Alex said looking over to her sister.

"Yeah, he's even talking, sort of." They both laughed.

"Oh, one last hug." Alex said taking the little boy and cuddling him close, she closed her eyes, keeping this moment locked in her mind and soul. She reveled in the thought the no matter what happened today, her jacket would smell like him. She sighed and put him down.

"Have a good day, be safe." Sylvia came over and hugged Alex lightly, keeping her hands in the cuffs of her long white sweater.

Alex let go first, and nodded. They were friends but there was a strain that neither could get over, not even at this distance. Alex thought if only they could talk about the huge elephant in the middle of the room they might be closer, but she didn't want to risk upsetting her sister. Sylvia was always the weaker one; Alex was her father, good and bad.

Alex picked her badge and sidearm off the coffee table and attached them to her belt. She picked up her car keys and rattled them at Jake who laughed in delight at the clacking noise. Alex smiled warmly at Sylvia and thought about extending out a hand to her, it had been hard on both of them.

"I'm inviting myself to dinner tonight." Alex stated. She stood in the doorway with that posture she had adopted when the girls fought as children over a doll.

Sylvia, never missing a beat smiled instantly. "Good, I have just enough poison left for one." She was always a half a step behind her little sister but thrilled to be back. The girls stood looking at each other with challenging looks. Alex broke first into a laugh. She turned and walked out the door. Sylvia looked at her son on the floor and smiled. She walked over to him and picked him off the floor.

"You, little man, are a lifesaver." She huffed his cheeks, eliciting another loud peal of laughter.

Alex turned into the garage under the precinct, ABBA blearing. She had to get her fix in before the day began. She had never dared turn the radio on in front of Bobby, afraid of how he would react, or what horrid fact he would know about the group, the music, or even of Sweden itself.

She clicks off the radio.

The elevator doors ding and open to the floor of the Major Case Squad. She walks down the hallway coffee in hand and saunters up to her desk. Bobby, who has now become Det. Goren in her mind, was focused on paperwork from last week. He was notoriously detailed in everything except finishing paperwork which he didn't want to do. She smiled at him as she looked up at her with that lost look in his eyes.

"Morning." She said to him brightly.

He blinked a response at her and looked back down. It had taken her a long time to get used to his communication skills… or rather total lack of. Once she did she found that there were still little "Goren-isms" that she had to acclimate herself to.

She sat across from him and opened her dossier. Police work was a funny business. It was all hurry up and wait. They sat around until something horrible happened, and then they ran around panicked. (OR – Eames was about to sit down when the door to Cpt. Ross's office snapped open. He looked out into the office, as thought the first two detectives that his eye fell on would be awarded the task.

"Eames, Goren." Capt. Ross called them into his office.

Goren rose from his chair, pen in hand and walked over to the captain's office. He moved much slower this past year. Alex had noticed this, and the weight gain. She had wanted to say something, but while they were great partners they weren't great friends. She didn't know his birthday, or favorite color. Besides, how do you start that conversation, 'hey, I know it's been rough since you lost your mom, and your brother's homeless, and you have a death-row convict claiming to be your father, well, you're also fat." Alex stifled a smirk as she thought of the look on his face if she ever did say that.

Inside the office Goren was already sitting on the left, he looked up at Alex as she walked in a few steps behind and sat next to him. Ross stood in front of his desk looking down. He sighed, Alex thought to herself that she missed Deakins more when Ross acted like this. Police work had no room for drama queens. He was a good cop, but he could cut the dramatics a little.

"We have a missing child in Manhattan. The family just phoned it in. I need you two to go over, and gently" he glared at Goren, "talk to the family."

Alex frowned, this was not usual. He wouldn't have pulled them into his office for a pep-talk before sending them out for a missing child. The clock was ticking and they sat there, wasting time. Alex shifted uneasily in her chair. Ross noticed her frustration.

"The family has made a few mistakes. The first response team unfortunately found about 25 people in the house, friends and family. Christ, they had their nanny and cleaning lady over, and the worst news is the cleaning lady was working. CSU's having a hell of a time." He paused and looked at Alex; he preferred to talk with her. He trusted her to translate it for Goren, whom he respected, but still didn't trust or like. "Try to beat the press, if you can."

With that vote of confidence they left.

Alex drove, as usual. Goren sat in the passenger seat starring blankly ahead.

"Lost in thought?" She asked. She was a little concerned, he was a quiet person by nature, but this was new.

"Hmm?" He looked over to her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes." He looked over to her and caught her glance, "sorry, I've been depressed lately." He added quickly.

Alex was shocked. Normally Bobby would never admit to feeling depressed, or having feelings. She wondered if she should buy him a cat, or better yet, fix him up with a girl.

They pulled up in front of the brownstone townhouse. Eames looked up at the beautiful and gasped. On the front steps there were swarms of reporter running in and out of the house. The CSU team had been left alone when the first response team had left. She looked over at Goren, his jaw muscle tensing and releasing as he ground his teeth in frustration.

She walked up the steps, dialing her phone to demand more backup. Once they arrived she would properly clear the scene. A photographer snapped her picture as she reached the front door, the bulb blinding her. She felt Goren's hand on her elbow guiding her through the door and moving people out of her way. Alex's sight cleared as she walked in, only to see Mrs. Dunwood giving a tearful interview to the morning news. The crime scene had turned into a mini-press conference.

Goren knew exactly what to do. He walked over the power source three of the camera had hooked into and began pulling plugs. As the outraged technicians turned around they were greeted by an enormous Italian and his badge. Alex stepped out to the center of the crowd. She flashed her badge and announced calmly that the room needed to be cleared.

"This is a crime scene, you all have to leave." She didn't need to raise her voice; she was much more effective when she spoke in a low tone.

Mrs. Dunwood stood to object, but Eames waved a hand at her and she sat back down. Eames noticed the look on her face was annoyance. Alex tried to remain open minded but some people just spoke to you with their body language, and this woman was shouting.

The reporters began to clear out. Alex heard the wail of sirens announcing her back up. She directed the first sergeant on the scene to close off access to the house, then was able to direct her attention back to the family. Goren had already begun talking with them.

"When did you first notice your daughter was missing?" He leaned in, using his soft voice. Alex could tell he was already forming impressions of the family and was going to skim the surface for a while to see how much information he could learn without their knowledge or acquiescence.

"This morning, the children woke up. We sleep late on the weekends, but when she didn't come down for breakfast I went upstairs to look and she was gone." Mrs. Dunwood began to weep; her husband held her but never took his eyes off Goren.

"What time was that approximately?" Goren prodded further.

"Uhm." She was searching, "maybe about ten."

Alex was taken aback by this.

"Mrs. Dunwood, you're daughter is five years old?" Alex asked, crossing the room to stand behind Goren.

"Yes." She choked out, bleary-eyed.

Alex thought that was odd. She walked around the rest of the room. If Bobby was going to do the interview she could use this opportunity to snoop around. She walked into the kitchen where the nanny and the cleaning lady sat huddled over the island. They looked up as Alex walked in, giving her guilt ridden glances.

"What time did you two get here this morning?"

The nanny started first, "I live here. I woke up at seven and went for a run. Then I grabbed a coffee and walked around the park, to relax. I got back at about eight-thirty."

"Who was up?"

"Mr. Dunwood was up before me. He gets up at six every morning and goes to his office to write." At this she chortled and the cleaning lady seemed to be in on the joke.

"And that's funny why?"

"Well, that's what he calls it, 'writing' but he's never published anything, and no one's ever found any great hidden manuscript," she said, rolling her eyes.

Alex nodded in agreement; she looked over at the cleaning lady, cueing her.

"I arrived a little nine. They already knew Angela, that's her name, was missing." Alex thought it was nice that at least one person in the house was honestly sad that the little girl was missing. The cleaning lady looked down into her cup of coffee somberly.

"What did you do after that?"

"Well, I asked the missus if she called the police and she just starred at me blankly and then told me that she wanted me to wash the carpets." Her eyes flashed to the side. Alex read the body language, the woman was thinking over her statement. Alex didn't feel that she was lying, just realizing that something about what she had said was wrong.

Alex looked at her intently.

The cleaning lady returned her gaze and tilted her head to a side. "I just cleaned those carpet's last week, it just seemed odd, that's all." She was apologizing for the odd behavior of her employers. Eames found that upsetting.

"Who called the press?"

"Mrs. Dunwood did." The nanny offered immediately. "After she had called over every relative she had on the island and all of her friends, she thought she should call the press, just for good measure." She smirked and sipped her coffee again. Alex was surprised to find someone paid to take care of children could be so callous.

The cleaning lady looked ashamed of her company and her employer.

"Okay, and what was your role in this little melodrama?"

The nanny shrugged, "once they found out the kids was missing I got banished to the cellar, that's where I live. I just snuck up the back stairs for some breakfast when you caught me."

Alex sighed, "okay, you will both have to make statements." She craned her neck to find a sergeant and waved down the first one escorting a CSU through the townhouse. "This officer will take your information, but please stay where you are for the next few days, until this is resolved."

The cleaning lady crossed herself, which elicited another cynical smirk from the nanny who finished her coffee with one large gulp and turned her attention to the bowl of grapes in between them. 'Some people just shouldn't have kids,' thought Eames looking at her. Alex noticed the dulled club stamp on the back of her hand.

Alex walked back to see Goren trying to separate the parents. That's where his talent always lay. He always found it a heavy handed tactic in others, the 'divide and conquer technique' but it worked for him. Alex would never bring it up.

She glided unnoticed through the rooms and upstairs, following a few CSU officers spraying luminal onto the rugs. No matter what the cleaning lady used, if there was blood it would show up.

Alex stopped at the landing and looked around to see two small children peering out at her from behind a slightly ajar door. In the commotion the other children had simply been locked away in a bedroom. Her heart instantly went out to them, probably scarred out of their minds and now abandoned.

"Hi, my name is Alex." She slowly lowered herself to her knees and was able to talk to them at their eye level. She smiled warmly at the little girl.

"Where's my sister?" She asked.

"I don't know. But we're going to find her." She moved in a little closer, as the children relaxed.

The little boy was standing behind his sister, but defensively put his hand on her shoulder. The girl was hugging a ratty looking bunny.

"Maybe you can help?" Alex said tugging gently on the ear of the bunny, "we need to find out if Angela talked to any strangers, or maybe had a friend that your mom and dad didn't know about?"

The little girl shrugged.

"Angela wouldn't talk to a stranger, we're not allowed." Eames looked at the boy, that's when she noticed his eyes. They were bright red, his skin was sallow looking. He looked as though he was strung out, but he was only eight.

"Are you alright?" Alex moved her hand to his face slowly, but he recoiled quickly. His breathing became fast and then erratic. His face flushed and he began to wheeze. Alex stood up and called out for Goren, the phoned in for a bus. The little boy crashed to the floor in a seizure.

In the hospital Goren paced back and forth. Alex sat still patiently next to ADA Carver.

The doctor came out, "he'll be fine." He looked around to make sure the parents were there, then added, "I ran a tox-screen, as you asked, and he tested positive for ketamine."

Alex looked over at Carver and without having to say a word he was on the phone arranging a search warrant for the Dunwood's home and a drug test for the other daughter.

As if on cue the Dunwood's charged into the emergency room demanding their son.

"Your son tested positive for ketamine. He has to stay here for his own safety." Alex explained in a deep tone.

"What, I don't understand." Mrs. Dunwood looked from her husband to Alex, "are you saying our son is on drugs?"

"Mrs. Dunwood, how would your son get drugs into his system?" Goren asked coming up from behind them.

The Dunwood's turned on him incredulously. "What exactly are you implying?" Mr. Dunwood stepped forward, breaking Goren's personal bubble. Goren backed up a step apologetically.

"I'm not trying to imply anything. I want to think about this, one of your children is missing, another has tested positive for a drug. We need to act quickly if we're going to get your daughter back." Goren reasoned with the man, watching as his eye slowly fell to the side in thought.

Mr. Dunwood nodded slowly. Carver picked up on the hint and looked at Eames. She understood immediately. The second child would be picked up for testing. Mrs. Dunwood stood in shock looking at her husband.

Goren and Eames were back in the townhouse as the two children were out. The cleaning lady had gone home and would not come back until tomorrow. The nanny was out.

"CSU came up clean, the house has no traces of blood or semen on the sheets." Alex inwarded added, 'thank god'. She was prepared to deal with the death of this child, but she wasn't ready to deal with the possible abduction and rape of a five year old.

"There's always something to find." Goren said taking wide steps around the house and eyeing everything with intent.

The house was beautiful, but lacked that quality that gave it life. The parent's hung their awards and certificates on the wall from medical schools and conferences. Pictures of the children were the generic studio shots of the unrealistic family. Everyone looked stiff and artificial in pictures like that. The furniture was expensive and too orderly for a family with three small children.

"The nanny wasn't exactly attached to the kids," Eames explained as she and Goren walked through the living room.

"Let's start there," Goren said.

They walked down to the basement. It was the typical nanny room. Small to the point of cramped, the cement walls were covered with posters of clubs and bands.

"Bizarre music taste." Eames observed tapping on the full sized poster of Marilyn Manson.

Goren glanced at it, "yesh, I don't like Amy Winehouse," he said and turned his back.

Alex almost laughed out loud but held it in. She didn't have the hour it would take to convince him that the picture was of a man. She began to notice a pattern to the room. There were flyers for clubs on the bureau along with old stubs for concerts and laminated back stage passes.

"This might be a little above her paygrade?" Eames directed Goren's attention to the table.

Goren studied the table. Using his gloved hand he sifted through the memorabilia. Alex noticed his active mind running over all of the items, tallying up the cost and comparing that to the average salary of a nanny.

"Maybe she had a side business?" Goren opened the top drawer of her bureau looking and starting going through her underwear, looking for anything out of place. Eames followed suit, she walked to the night stand next to the bed. It housed a small lamp and a single drawer. She opened it and found two prescription bottles of ketamine hydrochloride.

"That was easy." She said aloud to attract Goren over. She pulled the bottles out and placed them in the evidence bag he held open for her.

"A little too easy," Goren gave her a knowing look.

'Just once,' Alex thought, 'just once I would like it to be the obvious person.'

The nanny sat across the table from Goren, she was shaken and clearly terrified.

"We found these in your drawer, they have your finger prints on them." Goren was getting testy. He was quick to get annoyed when an interview wasn't going his way.

"I told you, I don't know how those got in my room." She was half choking out her words. She had been in the room for an hour now, answering the same question over and over again. Fortunately she hadn't lawyered up yet, probably unaware that she should. "I don't do drugs. Why don't you take my blood or my piss, or whatever it is you take and find that out!" She spat out those last words at Goren.

He looked up at Eames who was beginning to tire of this herself. She nodded her head at the door. Goren stood up.

"Don't go anywhere." He waved his finger at her. The nanny flashed hers back at him.

"We're not getting anywhere with her." Eames admitted to Goren. Her phone rang. Goren shifted back and forth on his feet as she answered the phone. He moved, unable to decide whether he would stay and wait on her, or go back into the room.

Eames snapped the phone shut. "Well, I don't think we need to get a drug test. Those bottles came from Mrs. Dunwood's clinic."

"If you could just tell me what you're looking for I can help you." The chubby nurse said annoyed.

"No thank you." Eames said, and noticing that the nurse getting too close to Goren she added, "Please wait in the nurses' station."

Goren was busily going through the drug cabinet. The clinic was a small general practioners office. Mrs. Dunwood practiced with two other GPs; her husband was a surgeon in the large state-run hospital. She was the money maker. It was not only unusual for a GP to have ketamine, but it was down-right illogical. There was no known medical use for ketamine on humans, it was an animal tranquilizer used on large mammals.

"I'm coming up empty here." Eames said, she had taken the left side of the room while Goren searched the right. "I'm going to the office."

Eames walked into Alice Dunwood's office. On the walls her MD and her license hung. The office was clean, tidy and sparse. There were no pictures of family and no personal touches. Goren would have a field day pretending to be Freud and analyzing this woman through her surroundings.

She walked behind the desk and tried the draws, they were locked. She fished around for the key and found it underneath the mouse pad. Alex smiled to herself, why was Bobby never around to she her flashes of genius. She was always present for his, and then it dawned on her: he waited until she was watching. Men, they craved audiences.

Alex opened the top draw, nothing outside of the unusual. A pad for prescriptions, stapler, some paperclips. The next draw brightened her day, three bottles of ketamine in the exact prescription bottles as in the nanny's room starred right up at her.

She slapped the draw closed too forcefully and the computer monitor turned on. The desktop was active. The doctor doesn't believe in logging off, Alex thought to herself. Goren walked in, and Alex smiled up at him. She shook the bottle with her gloved hand and he raised his eyebrows in approval.

Alex then turned back to the computer. Her luck was coming together today. She activated the outlook, and was able to read the messages.

Goren had walked around behind the desk and was looking over her shoulder. It was the good doctor's personal email account and not the networked medical staff. Messages from two days ago were still on the machine.

"Alice, party tonight? Club Lazare, meet you there." She began to read aloud to Goren. "Oh, and some of them get racy." She opened an attachment to show a picture of a nude woman blowing a kiss to the camera. "These are all from two days ago. It goes back for weeks. Our little mommy-doctor was quiet the partier, according to these."

"Check sent messages." Goren pointed at the monitor.

Eames opened the sent messages and as predicted, there were messages confirming meetings late night at clubs, parties, restaurants, even at hotel rooms. Alice Dunwood got around.

"Late nights for a working mom." Goren said reading over her shoulder.

"And I don't think the nanny works nights, she's out clubbing too."

"So who's watching the kids?"

Alex raised the bottle and shook it in his face again. They raised eyebrows at each other as they had the same, sickening realization.

Mrs. Dunwood sat inbetween her smug lawyer and pissed-off husband in the interrogation room. She was pale and shaken, but the lawyer was confident and self-assured.

"It was that little bitch, Amy." Norman Dunwood said, "She must have done it."

"No, there's no way, she was sneaking drugs out of your wife's office, into your home to drug your kids, just so she could go out at night. She was paid days only, we checked with the agency, after six her responsibility ended, for what is was worth prior to that."

Norman looked at his wife. "What do they mean, out of your office?"

Alice blinked and shrugged at him. She was terrified and tear were bubbling over the lower lids of her eyes, creating long black streaks down her face.

Goren's hand slammed down on the desk making all three jump. Eames, who was seated next to him, had grown to expect his antics, this failed to intimidate her, or even startle her. Bobby Goren would have to come in if he wanted to surprise her any further.

"Come on, Mr. Dunwood. You and your wife have been drugging your kids so you can go out partying at night." He stood up and walked over to the window, leaning against it he watched Norman's face betray his thoughts. Goren's face softened as he began to rethink his approach to handling Norman. "You didn't know that she went out, did you?"

"Norman moved out two months ago." Alice said very fast.

"We're in a trial separation." Norman was looking at the table, but stealing little glances at his wife, or what had been his wife only a few moments ago. "I moved into an apartment, while she and the kids stayed in the house." Norman's speech slowed as he thought.

"Mr. Dunwood, were you aware that your wife was going out at nights?" Goren moved over to the table, he cocked his head to a side to try to look at the subject from a new angle. It had taken Eames almost the first three months of working with Goren to discover that was what he was doing. At first, she had suspected he was being spooky, much like Michael Myers from Halloween. In actuality he honestly believed in looking at something from every possible angle, Goren just took that literary.

"That's why I left." Mr. Dunwood's breathing became heavy, he was angry. "I knew she liked to party, to pick up men with her sluttish friends and fuck them in bars." He stood up and stepped a few strides away from the table. Goren looked at Eames instinctively; he was uncomfortable with sudden movements, odd for the king of sudden movements.

"I want a moment alone with my husband, and I would like to point out that her husband cannot testify against her." The smug lawyer said, she no longer looked quite so smug.

The action in the room slowed to a halt. Eames felt the weight of the room close in as Mr. Dunwood sat back down. He shook his head without looking at his wife. Finally, he looked right at her, "Where is she?"

In the courtroom Alice Dunwood stood slumped over. Her shoulders had caved in on their sides, her clothing sagged on her body as though she had shrunk over night and had to crawl into the skin of a larger, fuller Alice from yesterday. She had, in a way. Eames looked at her, thinking it impossible that a woman could do this to her own children. What really bothered Eames was the missing child. She and Goren had both agreed that the little girl was dead, but how could the mother just dump the body somewhere. Goren was having a hard time swallowing that.

"Your honor, we are asking that the defendant be held without bail." ADA Carver stood at his table. He was an excellent speaker, Eames mused. She was always surprised that he and Bobby hated each other so intently. "She is a flight risk."

"Your honor my client, is a single mother of two small children, whose third child has been kidnapped. We can't keep her in prison." The defense attorney argued. Eames noted that the smug tone in her voice had dissipated to one of calm logic for the judge.

"We suspect, as does the grand jury, that the child in question was murdered by the defendant. The other two children are in the custody of their father."

"Enough," Judge Michael Ryan raised his hand. "I'm going to set bail at 30,000 dollars. Mrs. Dunwood is expected to relinquish her passport to the court and to submit to a leg monitor. Mr. Carver, are you appeased?" He raised an eyebrow at the prosecutor.

Carver tucked a corner of his mouth, he had no choice really. "Very, your honor."

"Great, next." With that Judge Ryan banged his gavel. Two guards took Mrs. Dunwood to the waiting room for processing. Mr. Dunwood stood to watch them take his wife away.

"She'll be out this afternoon." Eames remarked to Goren. He detected the cynicism in her voice and felt the same, but didn't want to admit.

"The monitor will keep her around," he noticed Norman Dunwood walking their way. "What's this about?"  
"Mr. Dunwood, where are your children?" Eames projected to him, a little too loudly. Some of the people moving out of the room looked at him, but kept moving.

"They are with my parents. I have to talk with you." He moved in to speak softer to the detectives. "I don't think my wife did this. She would never have been able to get rid of Angela's body…" his voice broke quickly, but he coughed and brought himself together.

Eames shot a look at Goren to read his face. He wasn't convinced she had either, and it was hard for Eames to swallow. Eames didn't have a terribly high opinion of Alice Dunwood but it was hard to think that she would have just taken her five year old and dumped her in some river, or land fill.

"Sir, if you can offer us anything to help your wife, or to help us find your daughter, then please do so. But we can't work against the evidence, which is all pointing at your wife." Eames said, she was trying to get him to divulge more, but chances are he was working on emotion only. She respected that, it was normal and right that he try to defend her, but they had to work on something more substantial.

Goren was filling out the paperwork. His body heaved over the desk. Eames walked up, offered him a soda. She felt guilty doing even that, the last thing he needed was more sugar in his system, but she wanted something to bridge this gap developing.

"Thanks," he took the soda and looked at the can. Eames could have slapped herself, cherry coke, that's what Emily drank. Goren opened the can, took a sip and put it at the opposite end of his desk.

"Have you heard from her?" Eames decided it was time one of them talked about the elephant in the room. She had one follow her around at home, she wasn't going to tolerate the one in the squad room.

Goren nodded slowly. "Letter, she's a letter writer."

Eames looked at him, she wasn't going to say anything, but she wasn't going to let him escape into the mountain of paperwork he was pretending to be busy with.

Goren's pen slowed to a stop, he didn't look up but he continued, "She's happy to be back in Boston. The college is exactly what she likes, nothing too big, and the students are all city kids from regular families. Best of all the Yankees are in last place, so she couldn't be happier." Goren winced at that. "She wants me to move."

Eames' eyes widened, the thought of Goren not being there one day had never occurred to her, but it should have. He was older, he would retire first, but that was the only thought she had ever given it. He was such a part of her life, it was hard for Eames to imagine not being annoyed by him at work.

"Her uncle wants me to come and talk to them."

Eames chuckled, "only in Boston is law enforcement a family business."

Goren was finally looking up, he smiled. "It's family here too."

She returned his gaze. "Bobby, if I come in some day, and find your desk empty, I'll be sad, but I'll understand."

"No, I can't leave."  
"Why, you don't think there's crime in Boston?"

Goren broke her gaze and shifted in his seat. "I don't like having to get used to a set of new people. Besides, you're too used to me," he looked up at her cautiously, "do you think you could work with a new partner?"

Eames knew exactly what he was doing. Bobby wanted to use her as a reason to stay. She couldn't let him do this. "Bobby, this is a job."

Goren looked as though that hurt, but he respected what she said.

Alex softened her gaze on him. "Bobby, this has been a hard year for you. Your mom, and brother, and now that thing about your father…" Goren raised his hand and closed her eyes, he was going to interrupt her, "no, listen to me. Do you think for a second if I could get Joe back, I'd hesitate? I wouldn't here talking to you, that's for sure. I think that if you found a person who makes you happy, and Emily did that, you should get in your car and drive to Boston tonight. If I come in tomorrow and I see you at your desk, I'll be disappointed."

Alex could feel tears welling up in her eyes, but she wasn't going to let Bobby see them. She collected her badge and sidearm, and walked out of the office without saying goodbye. She meant what she had said; if tomorrow Goren was gone she would happy for him. She just hoped she would be invited to the wedding. If Emily had anything to say about it, Alex suspected she would be the best woman.

Alex had pulled out of the garage and turned down the street. NYC was just turning dark. She would have to fight her way home to her sister's house. She snapped on the radio, listening to ABBA again. She felt bad about how she left things with Bobby, but he needed to be kicked in the butt, hard.

She pulled the phone out of her bag and dialed her sister.

"Hey, Slyvia, I'm coming but I'll probably be a little late."

"That's fine, just get here when you can." There was hesitation in her voice, "Mike's here and we were thinking, maybe this weekend you would like to take Jake (NAME?)?"  
Alex smiled widely. "Yes, I would like that. It would give you two a break too."

"Exactly!" Sylvia agree, again a little too fast. It was a heavy-handed attempt, but it was an attempt. Both sisters were going to have to work at this to make it work.

Alex's phone jingled. "Listen, Sylvia, I have to go I have another call."

"Okay, drive safely."

Alex hung up and pressed the accept call button, a video of Angela Dunwood appeared on her tiny screen. Alex's heart jumped into her throat, the little girl was alive, dirty and scared, but alive and unharmed.

"We have our ransom demands ready." A raspy voice whispered into the phone.


End file.
